Date Posted: 3/3/2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Atlantic Sun Conference stages its 23rd annual Women’s Basketball Championship inside Lipscomb’s Allen Arena in Nashville this week. The historic 2008 tournament marks a pair of firsts for the Atlantic Sun: it is the first time the women’s championship will be contested in Tennessee, and both men’s and women’s championships have joined, representing the first time in the league’s history that both men’s and women’s seasons will culminate simultaneously. 2007 champion Belmont returns to defend its crown, but regular season champion ETSU and host Lipscomb are just two of the seven teams hoping to unseat the Bruins.

2007 tournament champion Belmont is trying to become the first team since Georgia State in 2003 to defend its title. The Panthers won three consecutive tournament championships from 2001-03. The Bruins struggled to a fifth-place conference finish, notching just eight wins after winning 33 conference match-ups in the past two seasons. No A-Sun team has one the conference title in its home city since Florida International in 1998.

In their third season in the Atlantic Sun Conference, the ETSU Lady Bucs captured their first regular season conference title with a 14-2 mark. This is the program’s second regular season title and first since winning the Southern Conference crown in head coach Karen Kemp’s first season in the 1994-95 season. ETSU is seeking its first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament, but fights history as just four of the A-Sun’s previous nine regular season champions went on to claim the conference tournament title as well

. The Jacksonville Dolphins amassed 11 conference victories, posting an above .500 conference mark for the second straight season and just the second time in the program’s nine year history. Head coach Jill Dunn’s squad is looking to become the third two seed in five seasons to hoist championship hardware in Nashville this weekend. Florida Atlantic was the most recent two seed to pull off that feat, claiming the title in 2006. This year’s tournament host Lipscomb started the trend, taking the championship in its first-ever A-Sun tournament appearance in 2004.

The Lady Bisons enter the tournament as the number-five seed and on a three-game winning streak to close the regular season. In addition to stiff competition, they will face adversarial history as well. Florida International’s 1998 tournament victory was the last time a host institution earned the A-Sun’s automatic bid. Only four previous host institutions captured the championship trophy in the tournament’s 22 history, and only two since the 1987 season. The Lady Bisons begin their quest against Boulevard rival Belmont Thursday evening.

The 23rd annual Atlantic Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Championship will display the conference’s finest talent, as seven of the eight squads boast 2007-08 Player of the Week honorees. Mercer’s LaToya Jackson topped the conference in three-point shooting, and led the Beard in scoring for the season. ETSU’s Siarre Evans, the 2007 Atlantic Sun Conference Freshman of the Year, led the top-seed Lady Bucs in both scoring and rebounding for the campaign. Second-seeded Jacksonville offers a pair of Player of the Week winners in senior and all-time Dolphin leading scorer Ashley Williams, and leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, junior Virginia Gregoire. Gardner-Webb also exhibits a pair of Player of the Week honorees in Laura Povilonyte and Margaret Roundtree. Campbell senior Marlena Murphy is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double this season. Belmont (Amber Rockwell) and Stetson (Sharensha Smith) earned weekly honors over the course of the season as well.

Stetson head coach Dee Romine leads her seventh-seeded Hatters into the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament for the 13th and final time in her illustrious career this week. The 15-year Stetson veteran notched her 300th career victory earlier this season with a 74-70 triumph over Mercer. Romine coached Stetson to the 2005 Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament Championship and the school’s first, and to date only, berth in the NCAA Basketball Championship. She will finish out her career with more than 300 wins; over half of them coming with the Hatters.

The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.

Related Links:
 • Atlantic Sun Women's Basketball Championship